Heinz Baade

Rwanda - 23 years after the genocide of 1994
A photo story about Rwanda today and Valentine, a Tutsi who has survived as an 11-year-old girl

I. The ‘Eight-phase model’ for genocides

The 20. century is seen as the century of genocides: Starting with the genocidal colonial war against the Herero and Nama in the former German colony South-West Africa, the genocide of the Armenians, the Holocaust, the genocide by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the killing of 1.3 million communists in Indonesia in 1965/66 up to the genocide of the Tutsi in 1994 in Rwanda.

At the start of the 21. century, the American genocide researcher Gregory H. Stanton developed a generally-applicable pattern for the course of any genocide: the so-called ‘Eight-phase model’. This model sees the Rwandan Genocide in 1994 as a prototypical example of a genocide that expands and is executed in eight stages.

The eight phases are described as follows (I have developed the respective relation to the events in Rwanda after extensive research):


1. phase: Classification: Classification of people into competing groups.

In Rwanda, the colonial powers Germany and Belgium consciously pursued a division of the population into the privileged minority of the Tutsi (15% population share) and the under-privileged majority of the Hutu (84%), as well as the subordinate smaller group of the Twa (15). While these three ethnicities already existed prior to the colonisation, it was the colonial powers that led centuries of more or less peaceful coexistence of the Tutsi, Hutu and Twa into racially-focused competitive thinking. Hostility began between the groups, as especially the privileged treatment of the Tutsi gave them a certain level of power over the Hutu and Twa across all social levels. The benefit for the colonial powers was a more efficient control of the Rwandan population and thus strategically only served to secure the retention of power over the population of Rwanda.


2. phase Symbolisation: Externally recognisable identification of different groups.
The colonial powers ordered a mandatory verification of the various ethnicity by noting ‘Tutsi’, ‘Hutu’, or ‘Twa’ in their identification card. In the case of German National Socialism, this was the order for all Jews to openly wear the Star of David.


3. phase Dehumanisation The start of the psychological and physical spiral of violence.

The demonization and dehumanisation of the victim group (the Tutsi) which occurred with the help of the mass media lent the protagonists of the future genocide (die Hutu) a basis of justification, which went along with the assertion, for example, of an allegedly necessary ‘cleansing’ of society of enemies and dangers. As an example, the Tutsi were described as cockroaches, snakes, worms, mosquitoes, monkey etc. that needed to be killed.

4. phase Organisation: Organisation of the perpetrator groups:

From 1990 onward, continuous hate propaganda against the Tutsi was organised by the regime of Hutu President Habyarimana. In doing so, the newspaper Kangura played an important role - the publication of the so-called ‘Ten commandments of the Hutu’ was one of the most striking racist expressions of this press body. But the regime-loyal propaganda channel Radio-Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) also permanently incited the people against the Tutsi through hate speech. From the start of the 1990s to the beginning of the genocide in April 1994, the paramilitary groups Hutu-Power, Interahamwe as well as the Impuzamugambi were set up - they represented the para-military arm for the execution of the genocide of the Tutsi; yet the regular Rwandan army of the Hutu-state party MRND were also involved in the mass killing of the Tutsi.

5. phase Polarisation: Expansion of the future perpetrator group to the entire population.

In the end, thanks to targeted propaganda, the normal Hutu population was prepared to murder Tutsi, which substantially expanded the group of potential victims. Thus,

one result was that Hutu inhabitants of small villages killed their Tutsi neighbours, for example. Between 1990 and 1994, a rhetoric developed against the Tutsi that promulgated the persecution and destruction of this group. This rhetoric shaped the calls to violence in the days of the genocide. One of its central aspects was the method of distortion: The extremist Hutu propaganda accused the Tutsi in mirror-inverted allegations of planning the elimination of the Hutu. Therefore, a collective pre-emptive strike by the alleged threatened group was unavoidable.

6. phase Preparatory phase: Development of concrete murder plans as well as execution of the first massacre.

The first death lists in Rwanda date back to 1993.

7. phase Extermination Execution of the genocide.

The actual genocide in Rwanda started when the aeroplane of President Habyarimana was shot down on 06 April 1994, for which the Tutsi were made responsible and is taken as a measure for unbelievable atrocities, still today.

Approximately 30 minutes after the assassination of the president, the perpetrator of which has still not been identified to this day, the killing of the oppositional Hutu began in Kigali, as well as prominent Tutsi and supporters of the Arusha peace treaty from 04 August 1993 between the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and the Hutu-dominated army of the President Habyarimana. The perpetrators, first and foremost members of the presidential guard, proceeded according to prepared lists, tracked down their victims in their homes and killed them. Members of other military sections under the command of extremist Hutu officers as well as militia supported them in doing so. One of the first victims included Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana, who assumed the second-highest public office after the president according to the constitution. Ghanaian and Belgian members of UNAMIR, who had been deployed for their protection, could not prevent them getting killed. They were captured and the ten Belgian soldiers were subsequently also murdered. The international community reacted to the eruption of violence by evacuating all foreigners from Rwanda. French and Belgian soldiers conducted the appropriate evacuation measures . The number of deployed blue helmet soldiers was drastically reduced following the murder of ten Belgian UNAMIR members.

The acts of violence quickly spread across the entire country. Many Tutsi voluntarily or at the behest of the authorities sought refuge in schools, churches, hospitals, sports fields, in stadiums and similar sites. They hoped to better defend themselves against the attackers in the mass of people. Yet that did not help: the killer militia, armed with machetes, spears, clubs, nailed bats, axes, hacks and similar weapons, often only delayed their attacks initially, as they feared own casualties. A possible tactic of the attackers then resulted in starving the besieged. Then the attackers threw several grenades into the crowds prior to starting such a massacre. Then small firearms were used. Fleeing people were either shot or struck down. Following that, the militia advanced and killed any victims that were still alive with cutting weapons. The massacre of Nyarubuye was one of these types of crime. According to the statements of witnesses, most of the Tutsi sites of refuge had been seized by 21 April 1994. The number of casualties at this point are estimated at already 500,000.

In total, about 1 million people became casualties of the genocide - men, women, children - the exact number is not known to this day.

8. phase: Denial The perpetrators deny their guilt.

The perpetrator group tries to either deny their actions as a whole or to minimise the scope and magnitude of their murders.


Not every genocide strictly follows the chronological order of these phases - for example, parallel and temporally deviating phases are possible; Generally, this pattern appears to prove itself true throughout history, however, and in the case of the Rwandan genocide of the Tutsi in 1994, this applies by and large.

The historical cause of the genocide in Rwanda - most historians agree in this point - was the colonisation at the end of the 19th and start of the 20. century; at first by Germany and then Belgium later. The colonial powers introduced the classification into Hutu, Tutsi and Twa with the aim to realise their power interests. Colonialism institutionalised the criterion of ‘race’ in Rwanda and equipped it with a supposed ‘scientific’ background, which legitimised the Tutsi’s rule of the Hutu and additionally sketched a historical image, from which both groups derived a legitimation foundation to reject the respective other group. The reasons for the implementation of the racist social order were obviously founded in the colonial powers’ strive to strengthen the efficiency of the colony Rwanda. The continuation of the historical image by the inhabitants of Rwanda themselves - after the liberation of Rwanda from the colonisation in 1962 - either served the retention of status (Tutsi) or to reform the society according to legitimisation goals (Hutu). Up until the actual genocide, the indoctrination, instrumentalisation and manipulation of large parts of the population was the responsibility of the media to a large degree and their dissemination of racist concepts.


II. The behaviour of the international community during the genocide

Some historians are of the opinion that Rwanda has processed the 1994 genocide in an exemplary manner. In fact, memorials can be found across the entire country that commemorate the horrible murders. In some instances, embalmed corpses are exhibited at these memorial sites, such as at the technical school Murambi, where about 50,000 people were massacred. Every year, memorial ceremonies are held at many sites across the country, that start on 07 April and end in mid-July. That way, for 100 days every year, the 100 days are recalled during which the killings were committed in 1994. The ethnic affiliation as Tutsi, Hutu or Twa continues to exist, yet is public frowned upon and no longer designated in identification documents. The perpetrators were sentenced more or less fairly during the so-called Gacaca proceedings, in a decidedly complicated and long-winded process. A process of reconciliation continues to exist, if partially problematic at that. For example, victims and perpetrators are expressly encouraged to live together as direct neighbours.

So in a certain manner, Rwanda has found peace once more - the processing of the events probably took place and is taking place more quickly and thoroughly than in Germany after the Holocaust.

The UN’s passivity during the Rwandan genocide has been treated in countless publications. Several of these merely served an end in itself, led to an unjustifiable trivialisation of the topic or already skewed the facts in its basic premises. The magnitude of the UN’s failure in Rwanda demands an intensive and honest examination and processing - from different perspectives. To prevent a similar tragedy, all aspects of the break-down and its causes would need to be exposed. In view of the persistent shortcomings of the UN, one cannot currently believe that this has already occurred.

‘We mustered neither the political will nor the means to stem the killing. Since then, much has been written, discussed, debated and filmed about the Rwanda topic. Yet I have the feeling that this latest disaster is slowly being forgotten and its lessons are getting lost in ignorance and apathy. Yet the genocide in Rwanda was a failure of all of humanity - a failure that could easily repeat itself.’
Roméo Dallaire, force commander of UNAMIR.
So the world did nothing back then - the whole world knew of the genocide and could have prevented it. All indications for the killings were present and unmistakable. Every day, news of the horrific mass killings was broadcast around the world - the UN, France, Belgium, Germany... everyone knew, yet did not act. The United Nations with its mandate as the responsible institution could have very quickly ended the killings by deploying UN peace-keeping and/or intervention troops - however, this did not happen. According to the genocide resolution of the United Nations of 1948, the UN was obligated to intervene; The UN however did not feel compelled to act, because the Clinton administration refused to describe the events in Rwanda after 06 April 1994 as a ‘genocide’. The Clinton administration bears a large share of the guilt for the deaths of about 1 million people.

The role that France played continues to remain unclear. There are reports that allege that France not only tolerated the genocide, but supported it militarily - the evidence for this seems insufficient by all accounts, however. Shortly before the killings started, French President Francois Mitterrand is said to have stated that a genocide in Rwanda would not be all that bad.

Moreover, there are speculations that the inactivity - especially of France, Belgium and the USA - was based on post-colonial, competing anglophone and francophone power interests. The fact that the western states and the UN remained inactive and allowed a genocide to happen, however, first and foremost confirms the existing racism, that raises the value of a white man’s life over the life of a black person.

Furthermore, the fact that the world or the UN either negligently or wilfully tolerated - perhaps even supported - the genocide, is unbearable. That would mean that such events could happen again if not processed.

III. Rwanda today

The genocide of the Tutsi cost the lives of more than a million people. Most were killed in an inconceivably cruel manner - men, women and children. The genocide left Rwanda as one of the poorest countries on earth - its social, political and economic structures were destroyed.
The surviving population of Rwanda was deeply traumatised by the horrors they experienced in 1994. 23 years later, Rwanda has created a new path for a citizen-centred development.

Despite persistent severe poverty, especially in the rural regions, the quality of life of people has partially been improved and the hope for a better future has manifested.
Today, Rwanda is governed by a resolute, confident and steady president - following a human catastrophe of such a magnitude, it is a political art and necessity to rebuild a destroyed country to be self-confident and purposeful. President Paul Kagame has built a democratic governmental system, which has returned confidence to many people in the country and which has the highest percentage of women in parliament in the world, for example (quote Kagame: ‘Women don’t organise a genocide!’). Internationally, Rwanda ranks as one of the least corrupt countries in the region and the rating agency Fitch certifies that the country has generated a ‘quick and integrative growth through credible economic policies’.
One million Rwandans managed to free themselves from poverty between 2006 and 2011. Furthermore, the life expectancy in the last ten years has risen by ten years and more than 81% of the population are now health insured. The child mortality rate has dropped by more than 50 percent - in addition, Rwanda has witnessed the quickest decline in Malaria-related deaths (85 percent). At the same time, Rwanda’s population has grown by more than 3.5 million people since 1994 - this was especially due to refugees returning from Burundi. Today, 10.5 million inhabitants call Rwanda their home.

Rwanda exports some of the world’s best tea and coffee. The tourism and computer industry are expanding. Hospitals and schools are being built all over the country and no longer merely in the village of a successful minister, as it used to be.

The government’s policies are the key to these achievements. After the genocide, the government focussed on the best cultural traditions of the country - it used these to create something new, to implement a vision of reconciliation and to plan improved living conditions for all.

Rwanda’s development also continues to be based on financial international support, but the dependency on development aid has dropped to approx. 40 percent of the state budget - this was still roughly 90 percent in 1995. Nowadays, ending poverty through growth, entrepreneurship and education take centre stage. Today, the country has gained a vision of self-sufficiency for a long-term social and economic renewal. President Paul Kagame ended the genocide together with the RPF and now he is deeply committed to the stability and development of the country. ‘The fight to free oneself from poverty and to support development lies in bringing the best that we are, and that is what we can be. And it is in us; in our children...’

After the worst brutality that humans are capable of, Rwanda has been brought back to life.

My photo series shows the story of Valentine, a 34-year-old woman today, who survived the genocide as a 10-year-old girl. She fled to Burundi on 20.04.1994 with her entire family, while there was still time, and returned to Rwanda in August 2017 following the liberation by the RPF. However, her father and 2 of her siblings were killed by Hutu militia during their escape to Burundi. The photos show Valentine and her family in Rwanda today as well as memorial sites and document the general memorial ceremony in Butare on 07 April 2017 - a general impression of today’s Rwanda, in April 2017, is also meant to be conveyed.